Bob of Small End (61 page)

“
I want
one for seventeen thousand five hundred pounds.”

“
Why do
you need the money?” she asked.

“
We need
it for our business,” and he told her about their plans. “What I
want is to be able to pay just the interest each month and also to
be able to discharge the mortgage any time I want. Is it possible
to get a mortgage like that?”

“
Yes it
is. But both features make your mortgage rate a little bit more
expensive.”

“
What’s
the interest with those options?”

“
Ten and
a half percent.”

“
All
right. Then that’s what I want, please.”

“
Well I
don’t think you will have any difficulty in getting a mortgage but
our appraiser must check your house to see that it’s worth at
least, err, thirty or thirty five thousand pounds. Almost all
houses are worth more than that and I’m sure yours will be but he
must see it and approve the loan before the bank will give you a
mortgage.”

“
When
will I know if it is approved?”

“
He’ll
check your place in the next two or three business days. I’ll phone
you Thursday or Friday to tell you what he says. Then if you still
need the mortgage you’ll have to sign some papers.”

“
Good.
Thank you very much. He’s my address,” and he gave her one of his
earlier cards. “I won’t be home on Thursday I’ll be on the road,
visiting our retailers. I’ll come in on Friday and find out what’s
happening, if that’s all right.”

“
That’s
fine. Here’s my card. My name is Mrs. Pringle. Thank you for doing
business with us. Goodbye.”

He drove to
the shopping centre next, did his grocery shopping and managed to
buy two bottles of Thai sauce.

At the Crown
that night Jane told everyone that the electricians had nearly
finished wiring the new Centre and that the plumbers would start on
Monday.

“
The
construction manager phoned me Friday afternoon. He said they’d be
installing the gyprock next week. I told him that volunteers from
the village would paint the walls as soon as they were ready. So
please be available. We’ll probably do most of it one weekend,
there’d be more people to help then.”

Jack and Joe
said they’d help and Bob said he would if he could.

“
What do
you mean, ‘if you could?’ Bob,” asked Joe. “Aren’t you feeling
well?”

“
Oh, I’m
okay. I’ll be able to help next weekend if it’s ready by then. But
I’m going to London for the weekend, two weeks from
now.”

“
London?
What for? Are you going to deliver there?” asked Joe.

“
No. I’m
going to see Maria. She’s guiding a tour and will be free on that
Saturday. We’re going to see
Les
Mis
. I won’t be home until Sunday evening.”

“
Maria
Schroeder?” asked Jane.

“
Yes.”

“
Oh,
oh,” said Joe. “We’ll want to know all about it when you
return!”

“
It
won’t be as interesting as what I’ve got to tell you about
Wooden Toys
. Do you know that we’ll
be renting the old Community Centre?”

“
I do,”
said Joe.

“
No,”
said Rose.

So Bob and
Jane summarised what the committee had decided and what they had
done that morning.

“
Jack
we’ll probably want you and John to help build the benches. The
committee will tell us when we can start, hopefully by next
Friday,” added Bob.

“
Ah,
good. Could do wiv’ a bit more work.”

Sunday was a
bit of a let-down. Friday’s and yesterday’s excitement had cooled.
He wouldn’t see Maria for two weeks and they couldn’t do anything
in the Centre. There was just the washing, dusting, cleaning and
some hoeing to do, none of which filled his mind with interesting
thoughts.

He looked
through the windows of the new Centre as he started his afternoon
walk. He could see a bit of the hall and one side of the stage.
Many wires led to one corner. ‘That’s where the lighting board will
be,’ he guessed. The hall didn’t look to be much larger than the
one they had in the old hall; most of the extra space in this
Centre was used for meeting rooms. Jane had told him they wanted
lots of rooms for crafts, painting, pottery, music, bridge and,
probably, woodwork. Dancing and the fitness classes would be held
in the hall. The plans had been drawn after they studied how other
towns designed their Community Centres. The fact that they had done
that study had helped them get the grant.

Monday was
just like days of the previous week. Bob bought petrol at Tim’s
garage then headed towards Bristol, visiting the gift shops he
passed. He stopped after gathering eight new retailers and stayed
in a motel that had a small restaurant.

The
interesting part of that day came when he called Ken.

“
Lori
has had requests from three shops in your area,” he said, and he
gave Bob their names.

“
I know
about the second shop Ken. I’ve already called and they were very
surprised that their delivery was so quick until I said I didn’t
know that they’d phoned the office and that I was just looking for
more customers in this area. The owner told me that his wife’s
brother is already one of our retailers. That’s why they phoned.
I’ll see the others tomorrow. What else has happened?”

“
The
three boys the shop teacher told us about arrived at tea time this
morning. Craig knew two of them. They seemed interested although
one said he’d not tell his friends that he’d be making toys!
However none of them would be available until mid-July which is a
bit late for us. I’ve ordered all the equipment we’ll need to make
an extra-long bench. I didn’t try to get second-hand stuff. Buying
new meant that some of it will be delivered this week and the rest
early next week. It’ll cost just over one and a half thousand
pounds. I paid for them by credit card, since the sellers didn’t
know us, and that means we won’t have to pay them for another
month. We’ll have enough to pay them by then I’m sure.”

“
What do
you mean by an ‘extra-long’ bench?”

“
I’m
going to change the way we make the toys, Bob. I’ll do it all on
one long bench. We’re going to have a production line.”

“
Including the sanding and the painting? How can you do that
without getting sawdust in the paint and on the toys?”

“
I’m
going to use exhaust ducts and strong fans. It’s a bit complicated
to explain but it’s easy to understand once you’ve seen it in
use.”

“
Have
you ever done anything like that before?”

“
No, but
I don’t see any reason for it not to work. If it doesn’t then we’ll
sand and paint in separate booths.”

“
If it
works I guess it’d increase production. How many sets do you think
we might make in a week if we did that?”

“
Don’t
know. We’re making about seven hundred now and with two or three
times as many workers and a faster production process we’ll
probably make three or four thousand a week.”

“
Wow!
Then go for it. I’ll trust you. Did you find any more people to
work for us?”

“
The
secretary that Jane told us about gave me nine names. Lori called
all of them and seven will come tomorrow or on Wednesday to see
what the job is and I’ll tell them how much we’ll pay. I’m going to
say we’ll pay one twenty five a week until they prove themselves to
be as good as the people we already have. And then we’ll increase
their wage to one fifty. That should give them an incentive to
learn quickly and do a good, error-free, job. I’ll tell them we
can’t take them on until the new place is set up, which, I’m
assuming, won’t be for another two weeks. But I won’t ask them to
come in then. I’ll make it a week later, on July 8th; we should
have settled most of the problems we’re bound to get by
then.”

“
Yes,
they said the new Centre should be finished by July 1st, all except
painting the walls. You’ll need to order the extra paint and the
box pasteboards now if you want them in two or three weeks. And
you’d better let Leon know you will be ordering larger quantities
of wood in the future.”

“
Ah yes.
I’ll have Lori do that tomorrow. And order overalls and glasses. I
have a list of things that have to be done but I haven’t put those
on it.”

“
Have
you included making the rubber stamps for the last paint
coat?”

“
No. I’d
forgotten all about that too. Make a list of all the things to be
done that you can think of and give it to me when you return. You
don’t need to tell me by phone unless there’s something urgent.
Where are you going tomorrow?”

“
South,
towards Warminister and Bath. I’ll stay there or in Bristol
tomorrow night. ‘Bye Ken. Don’t overwork.”

“
I’ll
try not to.”

He told Ken he
had been to eleven shops when he phoned Tuesday evening “Including
the two that had called Lori. What happened with you today?”

“
The
wood and paint has been ordered. Oh, and Luke said he might not go
to South America in the autumn. He said he likes working here and
thinks the salary is good. However Jose said that’s not the reason
he’s not going, he has a girl friend now.”

“
I bet
there was some teasing after he said that.”

“
Yes
there was. And three men and a woman came looking for a job. Only
one man and the woman said they’d like to try working here. The pay
might have been too low for the others. I told the two interested
ones to go to the old Community Centre at nine o’clock, Monday July
8th. Oh, I saw Jane as I was leaving and she said to tell you that
the gyprock walls are being installed and they’ll need people to
paint soon.”

“
Yes, I
already know that.”

“
Where
are you staying tonight Bob?”

“
Just
outside Bristol. I’ll finish around here tomorrow then go to
Weston-Super-Mare. There’ll be lots of gift shops there I bet.
Plenty of tourists. I’ll call again tomorrow Ken.”

“
Ah, not
tomorrow, Bob, we’re having dinner with friends and I don’t think
I’ll be back that soon. You’ll come home Thursday?”

“
Yes.”

“
Okay.
I’ll see you then. Take care Bob.”

“
You too
Ken.”

He slept in
Weston-Super-Mare Wednesday night, tired after talking to the
owners of thirteen shops. He had his dinner in a pub and began
thinking, during his second pint, that he really didn’t like what
he was doing, there was too much work. It was getting much bigger
than he expected when he first started with Ken. And it would get
bigger, that’s clearly what Ken had in mind, but it wasn’t what he
wanted. He just wanted enough extra money to go on two, or even
three, holidays a year. At the rate they were expanding he’d have
enough to have a holiday every month.

He had a vivid
dream that night. He was in a small boat and going rapidly down the
centre of a river towards a big, thundering, waterfall. He pulled
on his oars, faster and faster, trying to get to the bank but the
boat kept moving towards the drop. He woke suddenly, just as the
bow of the boat dipped downwards at the sharp edge, frightened and
trembling. He lay there and knew he didn’t need anyone to interpret
that dream. He knew what it was telling him. It was a long time
before he got back to sleep.

Thursday he
drove around and through Taunton, then via Yeovil and Dorchester
back to his home, collecting twelve more shops along the way. He
was very tempted to visit Regina at lunch time, then Sam at six but
resisted the idea. Neither would want to see him driving a van and
he didn’t know if they would be home at those hours anyway. He
arrived home at eight thirty, had a ham and lettuce sandwich for
supper and tumbled into bed.

Bob parked the
van at the side of the workshop Friday morning. He entered by the
side door and chatted to Craig and Luke, who were cutting houses
then went to the office. Lori was there and he told her that he had
forty four more shops and gave her the receipts. In return, she
told him that there were thirty-two requests for more toys and that
they had come from all over their territory.

“
I can’t
manage all this Lori. We’ll have to hire someone else to help
deliver, a full-time person, I think. I’ll talk to Ken about it. In
the mean time can you make two lists separating the calls from the
east from those from the west. I’ll go east next week and the other
driver can go west.”

“
Don’t
leave on Monday Bob, that’s when most retailers call me with their
requests. They usually sell them over the weekend or they check
their inventory then and find out that they’re getting low. At
least, that’s the way we handled it in the dress shop.”

“
Well
that suits me. I’d be glad to take a longer break from driving. I
don’t really want to do it all the time.”

“
Why not
hire two drivers then Bob?”

“
Well we
could, if we could find them.” Ken joined them at that time and sat
down behind his desk. “What do you think Ken?” asked
Bob.

“
What? I
was thinking and didn’t hear what you were talking
about.”